Reconceptualising emotions-as-practices in education

A practice-oriented approach

Abstract

Emotions play a pivotal role in shaping educational experiences, yet their subjective and transient nature presents considerable challenges for research. This conceptual paper seeks to address these challenges by employing the Theory of Practice Architectures (TPA) as a lens to explore emotions as socially distributed and constructed phenomena within educational settings. TPA's holistic lens of 'sayings', 'doings', and 'relatings' offers a novel multi-dimensional approach to investigate emotions-as-practices.
In education contexts, including the evolving landscape of Networked Learning, emotions significantly influence learners' motivation, engagement, and achievement. Beyond individual impact, they contribute to the collective atmosphere of educational institutions, affecting classroom dynamics, inclusivity, and collaboration. However, research methods often struggle with capturing the complexity and fluidity of emotions, which creates a need for a revised methodology.
This paper, underpinned by Scheer's work on emotional practices and Wilkinson’s theorisation of emotions in practice, argues for a reconceptualisation of emotions. It presents them as distributed and entangled actions, discourses, and relationships rather than merely individualised physiological responses. In Networked Learning, the interplay of emotions and learning is emphasised by digital architectures, creating unique emotional experiences and challenges. The rise of affectivism in social sciences calls for a deeper understanding of these experiences, as digital spaces alter the ways emotions are expressed, perceived, and performed.
Utilising TPA, this paper conceptualises emotions-as-practices and highlights the importance of researching them through the tangible anchors of 'doings', 'sayings', and 'relatings'. This approach transcends the individualistic perspective and enables researchers to illuminate the collective nature of emotions-as-practices within education. In the context of Networked Learning, this conceptualisation reveals how digital learning can shape and is shaped by the emotional landscape through actions, discourse, and relational dynamics, and thus provides insights in the practice-oriented research on emotions.
By focusing on emotions-as-practices, the paper advances a nuanced view to investigate the holistic experiences of emotion that are sensitive to the active, discursive, and relational aspects. This perspective pushes the boundaries of emotion research, and suggests novel pathways for Networked Learning. The TPA serves as a valuable lens for researchers, educators, and policy makers to understand and integrate emotions-as-practices in the wider networks of educational practices. As educational paradigms evolve with advances in technology and artificial intelligence, the need to recognise and support emotions in education becomes increasingly critical, ensuring they are not only felt but actively fostered and integrated in learning environments.